Stress – Don’t let it stress you out!
At Simple Cures, our specialists apply Traditional Chinese Medicine to successfully relieve the causes and symptoms stress.
“I feel so stressed!” This is a phrase we hear almost everyday. Everyone has a different threshold and reaction to stress. Luckily, we have the solutions for you.
What is stress?
From a physiological perspective, stress is a natural response that can protect us. It is how the body and mind react to pressure from a certain ongoing situation or specific event. This could include daily routine responsibilities at home or work; negative changes like money troubles; or physical and emotional traumas such as an accident or a family illness.
Not all stress is bad. It can make us more aware of things around us and keep us more focused. In some cases, stress can give us strength to deal with a crisis and help us get more done. However, over a long period of time, constant stress inhibits the body’s ability to return to equilibrium. As it accumulates in the body, it proves tough to handle when certain triggers happen.
Let’s take a deeper dive on this…
When stress becomes harmful to our health
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, stress can impair the circulation of energy in our body, also known as Qi. Qi flows like a car driving on a highway. The highway consists of the meridians and channels throughout our bodies; interconnected to supply energy and nourishment. When there are no roadblocks, traffic will be smooth and fast. However, when stress occurs, a roadblock is created.
As a result, stress can manifest in many ways, for example, a headache. A headache can be caused when energy to the liver meridian is blocked, preventing the energy to circulate to the head; or when neck and shoulder muscles tense up, again prohibiting circulation to the head.
Other manifestations of stress include a weakened immune system, fatigue, muscle tension, anxiety, and hormonal imbalances that cause menstrual issues like cramps (More information on cramps can be found in our blog “It’s time to say goodbye to menstrual cramps”).
Stress is a proven risk factor for many serious illnesses, including depression and heart disease, and it may contribute to other health problems such as insomnia and high blood pressure. For these reasons, it’s important to work with a health professional to manage long-term stress.
At Simple Cures, our health professionals use Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat stress.
If you are feeling stressed, here are three steps we recommend that can help right now:
- Close your eyes and focus on your feet. Bring awareness to your own body and surroundings.
- Slowly breath in with your nose and out with your mouth. Repeat a few times.
- Tell yourself kind phrases, like “You have time to find a solution, and you’ll make it through.” As with the breathing, repeat a few times.
How are you feeling now? If you’re still feeling stressed, you may be experiencing higher than average stress levels. This is where Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can help, with two treatments that have proven to be successful for many of our clients:
Acupuncture
For those who have never had acupuncture before, it may be hard to believe that acupuncture needles can calm you down. But they do. Imagine that your body has a river of water flowing through it. When a tree falls in the middle of the river, it causes disruption at the top and bottom of the river as well. Stress is the equivalent of the tree falling into the river. Acupuncture can help remove the tree and restore the normal flow of energy throughout your body.
Here’s how it works: Acupuncture directs the energy flow inside your body, and guides the energy back to where it is supposed to go. This approach has not only proven to reduce stress, it can address, even reverse, the effects of stress, like high blood pressure, elevated blood glucose levels, and insomnia.
Herbal therapy
Sometimes herbal therapy is also needed to enhance stress treatment. Herbal supplements can provide more constant and longer lasting improvements, especially when it comes to internal imbalances. The herbal ingredients our specialists recommend for you will focus on calming the mind and improving the circulation of qi in your body, helping to defend against the harmful effects of stress.
Know where the stress comes from
Along with treatment, we help our clients uncover the sources of their stress, so that they can process and overcome it more easily.
Stress can arise from many aspects of our lives – work, family, finances, personal relationships, and so on. After a long time, many of us may become conditioned to it, so that we cannot recognize the hints our bodies are giving us. When we feel overwhelmed, or start to notice some of the symptoms mentioned above, this is the time to reconnect with our mind and body, listen to the signs that are given to us, and commit to taking care of our physical and mental health.
Reach out to us!
As TCM practitioners, our main priority for your well-being is to balance the mental, emotional and physical components within your body. With our application of acupuncture and Chinese herbs, we can help rebalance your body in order to reduce and ultimately eliminate the negative stress you are experiencing. As well, we provide personalised advice to help you recognize where the “bad” stress is coming from in order to find solutions that will reduce and ultimately eliminate it.
To learn more about managing negative stress your life, please contact:
Jaime Ho, Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (R.TCMP). She can be reached 647.726.2696.
Or
Book an appointment with her online at https://book.simplecures.ca/